The pissing contest between the PSUV’s most senior officials gangsters and Monaga state Governor José Gregorio “The Cat” Briceño gets more interesting by the day.

I’m with the Cat.

The governor of Monagas is doing what he is supposed to be doing: looking after the interests and wellbeing of the citizens of Monagas regardless of their individual ideological convictions.

Vice President Elias Jaua yesterday held a press conference, surrounded by the usual grim-faced Boli-stalinist “majunches,” to announce that Governor Briceño’s suspension from the PSUV and his “pase a un tribunal disciplinario” (i.e. political lynch mob).

The Cat is officially charged by the PSUV senior national leaders with horrible ideological crimes including, but not limited to, alleged repeated transgressions of party discipline, alleged repeated personal attacks and insults against party comrades (i.e. Diosdado Cabello), and for making public statements to opposition news media.

The PSUV has been looking for an excuse to can the Cat for years. The Governor got his start in politics as an Adeco, reportedly; of course, this allegedly makes the Cat forever suspect among true Bolivarians as a likely Fourth Republic infiltrator. Even worse, the Cat is too independent.

The Cat’s expulsion from the PSUV yesterday was set in motion by the pipeline break almost six weeks ago at Pdvsa’s Jusepin complex that spilled a large amount of crude oil mostly into the Guarapiche River. Caracas Chronicles and Setty’s Notebook reported on the Jusepin oil spill extensively.

The oil spill befouled the city of Maturin’s water supply, forcing Briceño to shut down the waterworks until the river and reservoir could be cleaned up, and until tests proved beyond any doubt that the water is once again suitable for human consumption.

The regime’s view, advanced by its top Environmental Czar clown Alejandro Hitcher, is that the water is once again fit for drinking – but I haven’t yet seen Hitcher demonstrate to the nation personally that Maturin’s water is drinkable. Have you?

About two thirds of Maturin has been without water for almost six weeks, since the pipeline ruptured at Jusepin. People in Maturin are hugely pissed off with the regime in Caracas and with Pdvsa. Maturin has been suffering almost daily power outages for years, but now the water has dried up too – thanks to Red Pdvsa’s incomparable incompetence.

Even worse for the regime’s negligible credibility, from the start of the crisis it was local officials in Monagas and the private sector that joined forces to contain the oil spill and provide water to Maturin’s residents. For example, the Polar Group that the regime so loves to hate was distributing ample supplies of bottled water to Maturin’s residents days before the nimrods running Pdvsa started trucking water to the city.

Governor Briceño also rejected orders from the PSUV’s senior bosses in Caracas – Jaua, Cabello, Adan Chavez et al – to turn on the waterworks three weeks ago when Hitcher, a congenital but unpersuasive liar, was assuring the country that the regime had cleaned up “95% of the oil spilled.”

The Cat is on the ground 24/7 in Monagas. He knows the truth of the situation. The water tests that the Monagas governor has commissioned confirm that as of today Maturin’s water supplies remain unfit for human consumption. People who drink and cook with the tainted water are at high risk of falling gravely ill.

In effect, Governor Briceño is doing his job responsibly, which is what the citizens of Monagas who voted for him (and those who did not) expect from their state governor.

But the PSUV’s top leaders in Caracas don’t see it that way. Screw the people of Maturin. In their view, Governor Briceño is rebellious, undisciplined and defiant.

President Chavez cannot countenance a governor that cares more about the citizens of his state, regardless of their political affiliations, than about obeying the president’s will.

Worse still, Briceño’s independent actions are supported by a majority of the PSUV mayors in Monagas. In faraway Havana, the paranoid president smells the first faint stench of mutiny.

If Briceño’s disobedience goes unpunished, other regional and local publicly elected PSUV officials could be encouraged to also act more independently, and in line with the needs of their state and/or municipal constituencies.

Independence of thought and action is a mortal sin within the Bolivarian Revolution and the PSUV. Chavez is God, omnipotent, infallible, the ‘masta’ of the Bolivarian Republic Chavera of Venezuela. Guys like Briceño cannot be tolerated, ever.

With Chavez rotting from cancer and the issue of a succession very much in doubt, the regime’s top figures – Jaua, Cabello, Maduro, Ramirez, General Rangel Silva, and the omnipresent Adan, among others – are desperately determined to crush every hint of dissent within the ranks of revolution.

The red elites at the top aren’t going to share any spoils of wealth or power in a post-Chavez era, after the Supreme Leader goes to his final rest in a suitable revolutionary mausoleum where street vendors undoubtedly will make a nice profit selling Chavez dolls to practitioners of Santeria.

But they will surely fail. The Cat’s expulsion from the PSUV makes him a more likable and viable regional leader politically. He might lose the gubernatorial race to the opposition candidate, but it’s a safe bet that the Cat will easily defeat any candidates that the PSUV fields in Monagas.

This action seems to be the beginning of the end….the “thing”, followers are beginning to run, scramble, even preparing their suitcases, in order to be ready, to run and hide, after the 7th of October, going AWOL, taking over the ship, or throwing themselves overboard, …some like Rangel, will leave before…others will meet with the MUD, and try to arrange their future problems….they must be aware, that whatever the MUD agrees and accepts, is their own doing, the courts are different, many Venezuelans will go to court to persecute many of these vagabonds….thieves, etc. etc.

Undoubtedly The Cat sees this as a great way to divest himself of the albatross that the PSUV is becoming. In his adeco days, the Cat was pissed that Guillermo Call never let him get anywhere, therefore he formed the MIGATO party and signed up with Chavez and rode the PUSV, er PSUV, wave quite well.

Now, with his finger firmly wet and in the wind he senses the change and seizes upon this issue to propel him onwards while possibly retaining power. He may not be able to jump on the MUD wagon seeing as how, A) the MUD has a candidate already and B) The Cat has some baggage in the form of disappeared persons that may hinder his entrance into the MUD tent.

Still, he probably will retain enough appeal and support from his stance on this issue to keep his seat by striking out on his own, neither fish nor fowl, just simply The Cat.

If the MUD plays it right, they’ll let him run his own deal, not stab their person in the back and keep him on their side at the same time.